Organizer Who Canceled Events Now Taking Entries for New Race

A race director who canceled three events two years ago is now accepting entries for an event at Liberty State Park in Jersey City, New Jersey. According to city officials, organizer Dave English does not yet have a race permit for the May 16 event.

The Liberty Lightning 9K is not the first race English has attempted to hold in Jersey City. In 2013, English promoted the Liberty Run Marathon Festival, half marathon and 5K, then canceled the marathon and half marathon[4] two weeks prior to the May 25 race day citing construction along the route. Jersey City officials, however, said English never had a permit to run the races on city streets. English planned to hold the 5K within Liberty State Park, but canceled it on race day[5] blaming rainy weather; officials said English hadn't submitted that race’s insurance certificate in time and was therefore not authorized to hold the event.

Runner’s World Newswire contacted the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, which oversees special event requests at Liberty State Park, about the status of the Liberty Lightning 9K race permit. “We have received and accepted the application for the event,” Department press officer Larry Hajna wrote in an email. “Our acceptance of the application merely holds a date on our special event calendar. We have not issued a permit to date. We are currently reviewing the client's operation plan for the event. The plan calls for the use of property in neighboring jurisdictions. Therefore, our approval will be conditioned upon approval from other neighboring jurisdictions.”

Specifically, the Jersey City Office of Cultural Affairs must approve the race plan as approximately one mile of the proposed course runs through city streets. A representative of the Office of Cultural Affairs told Newswire on April 17 that approval is still pending.

When Newswire spoke with English on April 13, he said all of the required paperwork has been submitted. “We won’t be able to get [the permit] until the week of, or the week before [the race]—that’s when they issue it,” he said.

Not so, according to Hajna. “We can issue the permit as soon as possible once we have all the necessary information from the applicant and he has satisfied any comments and questions we may have regarding operations,” he wrote.

Asked if he was worried about not yet having a permit for the Liberty Lightning 9K, English responded by email, “The process will be finalized in the upcoming weeks, so no, I'm not concerned."

At least one runner is. Ashley Fizzarotti signed up for the May 2013 marathon and requested a refund after it was canceled. She received it two months later. “I think it is ridiculous he is accepting registration fees for another race without having a permit finalized,” she wrote to Newswire.

English wouldn’t disclose how many runners have signed up for the 9K, but said he's trying to make amends for the past. “We offered the 2013 runners a free run on this one as well as any future races,” he said.

That was news to Fizzarotti. “I did not get an alert about that, which is frustrating because I would love to run a fun new distance (but would never pay for a race with the same director),” she wrote.

The Liberty Lightning 9K benefits the Liberty Run Foundation. According to the event website, the foundation is a non-profit organization that English established to provide support for wounded veterans and their families. Jersey City mayor Steven Fulop—an avid runner according to Fulop’s event scheduler—is the race starter.